Club brugge man city
The youngster takes a touch and then, from 18 yards, curls in majestically with his left foot. He forces a save from Mignolet and then bashes the rebound into the side netting. They look totally on point here. This time Mignolet denies him with a foot at the near post.
Sterling gets away down the left and carries the ball towards the box, unselfishly laying it across the edge to Palmer. They may as well rest players now. They might as well. He conceded the penalty after an intricate City move, which saw Dias heavily involved in open play, seemed to have run aground before Mahrez nipped in and beat him to the ball.
When play restarts, Mignolet denies Foden from an angle with his feet. Foden takes a clattering in the process but VAR adjudges everything was done legally.
Foden was on another level in that half. Stroked calmly into one corner while Mignolet dives towards the other. He could have had at least three since coming on. Nsoki clipped the Algerian and the spot kick was in no doubt. Sterling almost makes it five but fizzes one wide. Once they went up it turned into a basketball match and the final stages were actually rattling good fun, Brugge pressing gamely and City pushing for more.
If anyone present knows of any reason why City should not win this game comfortably, please declare it now. He replaced De Bruyne. Ok, nearly time for the second half.
Man City vs Club Brugge UEFA Champions League 2021/22
The touch, the vision, the weight of the passes — as we saw for the first goal. Palmer picks out a delightful ball for Walker, who could shoot or give Gundogan a tap-in. It feels like England qualifiers. Both sides could have scored more than they did. The subs combine within moments! It has been utterly dominant and professional from City, who scored a lovely opener through Cancelo before Mahrez converted a penalty.
Superb football and another stellar piece of initiative from a City full-back. But make no mistake: this was ominously good from City. Not a good couple of minutes for him. Well, they get one back and the crowd love it! Bruges then make two more changes — Mechele is on for Nsoki and the old poacher Dost replaced De Ketelaere, who has shown a few glimpses of his quality and was unlucky not to score there.
Brugge get up a head of steam and begin to look consistently threatening for the first time. Earlier today, Celtic beat Ferencvaros in the Europa League. Walker makes a brilliant underlapping run to get on the end of a cute De Bruyne pass and, while Mignolet might do better with the shot I think, he deserves to find the far corner.
Weirdly this is the most fun period of the game, both teams happy to keep going at it and making all kinds of chances. Vanaken sweeps in very neatly after a cross from the right is touched on. Lovely goals from both full-backs, a quite brilliant display from Foden, a composed strike from Palmer after he came on Utterly imperious from City, who were dominant to a quite incredible level for 75 minutes and played some sensational stuff.
The keeper is out smartly to deny Van der Brempt at an angle.
City look for another and Mahrez wins a free-kick just outside the right corner of the box and whips it harmlessly over. But City are able to cut through at will and Mahrez, played in by a lofted Fernandinho pass and onside even though nobody is near him, rampages through before crashing in number five! If only Brugge could have been this full of mischief all game!
Brugge would be delighted to keep it to four at this point. City have looked, and still look at up, so hungry.